


The Best Map Is the Land Itself

by Annwyd



Category: Gundam 00
Genre: Additional Warnings Apply, Afterlife, Betrayal, Blackmail, Dealfic, Dubious Consent, Genderqueer, Guilt, Kink Meme, Melodrama, Metaphysics, Other, Plotty, Post-Canon, Resurrection, Seduction, Technobabble
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-04-03
Updated: 2010-04-03
Packaged: 2017-10-08 16:21:02
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 16,601
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/77503
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Annwyd/pseuds/Annwyd
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He may have been defeated once, but Ribbons has another plan. It involves Neil Dylandy, Tieria Erde, and a strange device called the GN Map.  Features Tieria in a female body, copious wild speculation, and sparkly Gundam metaphysics.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Best Map Is the Land Itself

When Ribbons woke up, he could feel the gravity of the Earth around him, and he knew at once that his first line of attack had failed. The other Innovades, A-LAWS, all his cages around humanity: they hadn't worked. Setsuna F. Seiei had broken them, and the rule of humanity had slipped between Ribbons's fingers like so much sand.

It was an unfortunate setback.

But if he could not hold the physical world of humanity in his fist, he still had a way into their minds. Perhaps it would be all right to let them undergo Innovation after all. They would only be playing into his hands. Ribbons wished he still had someone to whom he could voice these musings; he already missed hearing the sound of his own voice. Regene had been good for that, even if he'd been a failure and a traitor in the end.

But how did the metaphor go? Ah, yes: it concerned a trump card. Ribbons had one of those. He would play it now. He'd hoped not to have to--he didn't fully understand its workings. It had been intended for Celestial Being to decipher on their way to Jupiter, where it would assist them in the dialogues to come.

The GN Map was the counterpart to the GN Drive. Where the latter produced GN particles from a solar furnace, the former read and processed the data contained in those particles, unbeknownst to the ones emitting them. Ribbons was not sure why it worked the way it did, but the significance of just what it did was enough to make him glad that he'd never created anything that emitted true GN particles himself.

It also made him glad that he'd created another set of cloning chambers, secured away from Veda. Well, that was a given; without them, he would be entirely at Tieria's mercy, his data probably locked away in some miserable corner of Veda. But he'd need them for his next move as well.

In the secrecy of his final base, Ribbons turned on the one thing he'd erased all knowledge of from Veda: the GN Map. Its starry codes sparkled into existence all around him. The brainwaves of everyone who had been exposed to enough GN particles flickered brightly in that starscape.

One of them was brightest of all. Ribbons reached out to cradle it. "Setsuna F. Seiei," he said. "You won't have long to be humanity's master. Not when I unlock the GN Map's secrets." But to do that, he'd need the computing power of Veda. He didn't entirely understand the GN Map yet, and that was part of the reason he hadn't used it in the first place. It was much safer to manipulate humanity into oppressing itself--he _understood_ humanity, after all. Alejandro Corner had taught him more than enough. But he had no choice now, and it was time to regain access to Veda so he could begin again.

This presented a problem. Tieria had gone into sleep mode in the time that the cloning chambers had been building Ribbons a new body, but he'd surely locked Veda securely against entry by Ribbons's brain patterns, just in case. In fact, there'd be no entry to Veda at all save through Tieria. To hack his way back into the supercomputer, Ribbons would need to lure Tieria out and take him unawares.

He remembered the last time he'd seen Tieria lose control. Not when he'd offered to give him back access to Veda--that had been merely a momentary lapse. No, it had been when he'd maligned that useless human who'd so easily given up his life seeking vengeance for his family. That man was Tieria's weakness. It was fortunate, then, that the GN Map could assist him here.

It showed the brainwaves of _everyone_ who had been exposed to enough GN particles. It made little distinction between those who were still living and those who had passed on. It was a good thing A-LAWS had only had access to GN Tau Drives, Ribbons thought, or the GN Map around him would be cluttered with their dead.

With one hand, he reached out and cradled a cluster of sparks that represented one human being. "Lockon Stratos," he said. "Neil Dylandy. You are a weak and foolish human. How easily can I control you?"

After some thought, he let go of the lights that represented all that was left of Neil Dylandy. He touched another cluster. "Lockon Stratos," he said. "Lyle Dylandy. You've been my pawn before. This time, I don't even need you to do anything."

Ribbons made the final connection between the GN Map and the cloning chambers. Then he singled out two particular groups of lights from the GN Map and funneled them through that connection. The tubes whooshed into action and began building new bodies.

It would be some time before they were finished. Ribbons would have plenty of time to upload the necessary information about the past five years into Neil Dylandy's mind. And in the meanwhile, he would have a pair of unresponsive, insensate beings to whom he could feel comfortable speaking. It would feel good to hear his voice again.

It would feel even better when this Lockon Stratos cut him a path back into control of Veda.

* * *

Little things came back to his awareness first. He was lying on a couch. The outfit he wore had a window for cleavage even though he had none. His hair was blue even though he remembered it being brown. He'd died five years ago, and since then everything had changed.

Lockon sat up abruptly. "Where am I?" he demanded of the man sitting on the couch opposite him.

"That shouldn't concern you right now," the other man said, smiling.

"Who are you?" Lockon asked. The face in front of him looked weirdly familiar, but he couldn't put a name to it. All he knew was that this man was one of those people who had never learned how to smile in a way that didn't inspire the urge to punch him.

"You should know that by now," Ribbons said. "Or have you not figured out how to access the new memories yet?"

Before he could stop himself, Lockon was on his feet, groping helplessly at his side for a gun that wasn't there. "Ribbons Almark!" This was the man who'd tried to kill Setsuna. Who'd been responsible for the death of the love of Lyle's life. Who'd put all the goals Celestial Being had worked for in jeopardy.

"Very good," Ribbons said. "I suggest you sit back down. You have no gun."

Lockon didn't sit down. "I get it if you won't tell me where I am," he said. "But why am I here? You can't really think I'll help you with anything." He didn't think too much about where all of his anger came from. This man had done enough to earn it, and that was that. No need to wonder if some of it was because _this man had brought him back_. The hollow ache in his heart of goals unfulfilled and a world still broken could be ignored a while longer, even if he was alive again. It was important to focus on the present and not let himself think too much about what he was feeling. It was easy, with an enemy like Ribbons right in front of him.

"Is that really your first question? I'll answer others, if you like," Ribbons said. "You're alive because of my cloning technology. You're in an Innovator body, which is why your hair is blue. You look like yourself, other than that. I suggest dye."

"I'm not interested in any of that," Lockon said. Other thoughts nagged at him; he suppressed them before they could even come to the surface.

"I can give you what you _are_ interested in," Ribbons said. "Why don't you take a moment to think about that?"

There. Now Lockon had no excuse to suppress those thoughts anymore. What was it he'd wanted? To avenge the ones he'd lost; to protect the one he had left. Then everything would be all right again--

New memories flashed through his head, and he staggered. Finally, despite all his resistance against Ribbons's urgings, he did sit down. The images were too strong to shake and too clear to dismiss as lies or tricks.

Ali al-Saachez, alive. The vengeance he'd died for had been incomplete. No, but it wasn't any longer, because--

His brother, in Celestial Being. Lyle, with blood on his hands. Lyle, alone, his own world broken now. Everything he'd fought to spare Lyle from, his brother had taken on anyway. Everything he'd fought so his brother could have, Lyle had lost anyway. He would have no restored family. He would never be happy or safe.

"You understand now," Ribbons said. He was smiling again. "Nothing is as you meant for it to be. I can fix that. I can make it so that your brother never needs to fight again. I've already taken the liberty of bringing Anew Returner back, of course," he added. "If you give me your assistance, she'll be reunited with Lyle Dylandy, and he can live in peace with her."

"There's no way I'm going to trust you," Lockon said.

Ribbons stood up and gestured for him to follow. "Walk with me."

Lockon's hands curled into fists, but he rose to his feet and followed Ribbons. The two of them emerged into another room, this one filled with rows of person-sized tubes. One of them was open. "I guess that's where you wasted your time and resources bringing me back, huh?" he said.

"That's not important anymore," Ribbons said. "You're here. Look at the next one."

Lockon looked. He should have known what was coming, but with the new memories of his brother's life nestled in his brain, the sight still shook him. Anew Returner floated peacefully in the tube, her hair rising around her face--the face of the woman that Lyle had loved and always would love. He forced himself to think clearly. "How do I know it's really her?"

"Would you like me to wake her so the two of you can discuss your brother?" Ribbons said.

Lockon turned away. "No. It would be cruel." And he didn't think he could take looking into her eyes.

"It's only cruel if you don't intend to work with me," Ribbons said. "Then I'll have to send her back."

"What do you need me for?" Lockon said. "It looks like you've got a pretty good operation going on down here."

"I need you to get into Tieria Erde's head," Ribbons said. "Do you remember what happened to him?"

Lockon caught his breath. The new memories came to him in a sudden wash. Tieria, watching over humanity from Veda. Setsuna, the first true Innovator. They'd come so far. He was so proud of them. He couldn't undo all the work they'd done in his absence. Not after he'd entrusted the future of humanity to them with his last thoughts. "I remember," he said. "I'm not going to destroy everything Celestial Being has worked for. So don't bother. Kill me again now."

Ribbons sighed. "I didn't make myself clear," he said. "I need to control Veda again. You're the key to getting me that control."

"You got it wrong," Lockon said.

"Did I?" That smile again. Lockon was good at restraining himself when he needed to, or he would have long since put a fist through Ribbons's teeth. "I must not have been very clear. You were exposed to enough GN particles in life that I could bring you back after death, Neil Dylandy. Your brother was exposed to even more than you. What do you think I could do to him, if I wanted to?"

Lockon froze. Ribbons turned and started to walk away, through another corridor. He didn't suggest that Lockon follow. This time, Lockon had no choice. He had to know what the answer to that question was.

When he caught up with the other man, Ribbons was standing in the center of a strange starfield of glittering lights. Something that looked like a distant relative of a GN Drive projected them all around him. "This is the GN Map," Ribbons said. "All these lights are the brainwaves of those who've absorbed enough GN particles." He gathered up a handful of stars. "This is the man who now goes by the name of Lockon Stratos. He doesn't need to go by it for very much longer. Either way, he won't. Either he can retire to live happily with Anew Returner, or I can enter the delete command."

Lockon thought of the time he had spent with Celestial Being. He thought of Setsuna. Once upon a time, he would have betrayed them without a second thought had he been given a better way to make a better world for Lyle. Here it was before him now, and he grasped desperately for a way out. "Why don't you just delete them all, then? You sound like you're up to it."

For the first time Lockon had seen, a shadow passed over Ribbons's face. "The GN Map was designed to be used by a pure Innovator, created from a human," he said.

"You mean Setsuna's supposed to have it," Lockon said.

"All I mean," Ribbons said, "is that it will take me some time yet to discover how to manipulate more than one or two brainwave patterns at a time. And Setsuna's pattern resists me."

Lockon smiled himself, for the first time since he'd woken up here. "That's Setsuna, all right."

"He's a purebred Innovator," Ribbons said. "That's the only reason."

A spark of hope kindled in Lockon. Maybe even if he worked against Celestial Being, Setsuna would still be able to defeat Ribbons in the end. Then Lyle could have Anew, and no longer need to fight, and Setsuna could change the world. And--

He couldn't shake the image of Ribbons's fist closing around the handful of stars that he said made up Lyle Dylandy, and he couldn't risk doubting it.

Lockon lifted his gaze to meet Ribbons's, refusing to flinch. "What do you need me to do?" For now, he'd do what he always did: he'd fight to make the world better for Lyle, and after that, he'd atone for his sins. He'd never imagined having _this_ much to atone for in the end, but it didn't matter. It never had.

"I told you," Ribbons said. "It's about Tieria..."

* * *

Out on the edges of Veda, the processes necessary for preparing humanity for Innovation and the dialogues to come continued. Innovades were created and sent to live amongst humans. Data from the Ptolemaios was processed and stored in the appropriate files. Concentrations of GN particles were measured constantly. Only dire alarms and messages of the utmost importance went past all this to wake Tieria.

Deep in the heart of Veda, Tieria dreamed.

Some of the things he had picked up in his time striving for humanity had not left him. Dreaming was one of them. His dreams were fractured and computerized, but they existed. They were dreams of assisting the crew of the Ptolemaios, of caring for Mileina Vashti, of being with the first Lockon Stratos he had known. It was because of the dreams that he did not at first recognize the message coming through to him. It seemed too much like a part of them.

_Tieria. It's me. You're there, aren't you?_

In any case, Lockon could not access Veda, so there was no question: it _had_ to be a dream.

_Hey, hey, don't ignore me now! This is important. I need to see you._

Tieria kept sleeping.

_Yo, Tieria! It's 2313 and it's time for you to wake up._

Tieria woke up.

* * *

Connecting to Veda was weird. It left Lockon feeling too open, even though Ribbons had assured him there would be barriers in place to prevent Tieria from noticing anything was amiss in what now served as his brain. The point was that he wasn't meant to connect with anyone or anything this way. He was supposed to be there for them--not open up to them. Besides, even if the barriers worked, _he_ knew there were worse things now in his head than rage, bitterness at the world, and a killer's mindset. The idea of those who had known him seeing that was bad enough, but now he could add betrayal to the list of his sins, and that was even worse.

Lockon shook off the thought. It wasn't worse: it was just doing what he had always done. Changing the world to make it better for Lyle. It didn't matter if Lyle hated him for it, so long as he had a new life in the end. And there was still the chance Setsuna could save them all--no, that was definitely a bad thought to be having. He didn't know how much of his mind Ribbons could read, so it was best to assume he could read all of it.

Getting Tieria's attention in Veda was more difficult than he'd expected it to be. He wondered if this meant Tieria had outgrown him and found stronger connections in those who were still alive. It was a nice thought, but it made him feel a little lonely. He kept calling.

In the end, a tendril of a familiar voice reached back to him, tentative and helplessly hopeful. _Lockon Stratos? No...you are--_

Lockon cut him off. The idea of Tieria saying his real name was too weird, even weirder than being connected to Veda. _It's all right if you still call me Lockon._

It was wonder in Tieria's digital tones now. _How is this possible? Is this another vision of some kind?_

Another vision? Lockon wasn't sure what Tieria meant by that. He pushed the idea away for now. _No, it's me. I'm alive. I need to see you, Tieria. It's important._

The response was immediate. _Give me the coordinates and I will be there as soon as I can create a body. But how are you connecting to Veda? Only Innovades can use this connection._

Lockon sent him a smile along the connection, or tried to. _It's complicated. I'll explain when you get here. Lockon out. Take care of yourself, Tieria._

* * *

Tieria acted as fast as he could. He found the most compatible pattern for 0988--his genetic type--and set it growing in the cloning chambers. He told himself at first that he'd picked a female body for purposes of disguise, but it was hard to lie to oneself when one was a supercomputer. He'd picked the female body because it was 0988's natural state and would grow fastest. He wanted to see Lockon as soon as he could.

He checked his caches of data within Veda. Ribbons's identity was still safely locked away under his own personal codes; the personal data of the members of Celestial Being was also private. But it occurred to him that he should contact them. He could not imagine explaining to them what he was about to do, but they deserved to know that something was happening.

Tieria opened a channel to the Ptolemaios, en route to Jupiter, and made himself a visible body so they could see him talk to them. "This is short notice," he said, "but I have business on Earth. I'll be creating a new body to travel there."

"I knew you'd come back eventually, Mr. Erde," Mileina said, her eyes shining.

"I apologize, Mileina," he said. "I won't be able to join you just yet. But please wait for me. If anything needs my attention, I'll be back in Veda as soon as possible."

"You can't tell us anything more?" Sumeragi asked.

"It's a complicated mission," Tieria said. "When there's time, I will explain everything to you. For now I need to prepare."

It was only after he turned off the channel that he felt Setsuna's quantum brainwaves brush against his own. _Tieria Erde._

He hadn't realized Setsuna could do that. But, he thought, it shouldn't be a surprise. _Setsuna. You know what I'm going to do._

_I am aware,_ Setsuna said. _Be careful._

Tieria could not fathom the purpose of such a warning in a situation like this. But he accepted it anyway. Setsuna was concerned for him; that was an emotion one felt for one's companion and friend. _I will._

* * *

Lockon dyed his hair back to what had been its natural shade in his first body. Ribbons procured him normal clothes. He prepared to go to the place where Ribbons had arranged for him to meet Tieria. It seemed kind of tacky of Ribbons to choose Dublin, but Lockon knew better than to object. One thing his new memories told him about Ribbons Almark: the man liked to be in control.

As he prepared to leave, Lockon caught a glimpse of himself in a mirror. He looked the same as he always had, as if he'd never been blown to pieces in the middle of space at all. But he was different, now. He served someone else--

A poisonous thought wormed its way into his mind. _You know who Ribbons Almark's last favorite henchman was, don't you?_

He snarled, his hands clenching tight into fists, searching for something to punch and finding nothing, because that last favorite henchman was as dead as he should have been five years ago and it was Lyle who'd killed him, Lyle who had blood on his hands now, and that was why Lockon was doing this. He was fixing his failure to fix the world for Lyle. Nothing else mattered.

Except, perhaps, for the fact that he wasn't sure how well he'd outright lie to Tieria. He'd been so very good at lies of omission, at bending and hiding the truth, but he was no secret agent. Just what did Ribbons expect from him?

Maybe Ribbons _could_ read his mind, because he chose that moment to approach from behind. "You'll need this," he said, holding out a gun. "Don't worry. It's invisible to all modern methods of weapons detection. You'll make it to your homeland without arousing any suspicion."

Lockon took the gun. That, at least, he could handle. For a moment, as he held it, he looked consideringly at Ribbons.

"Don't bother," Ribbons said. "I have other bodies."

* * *

It was rather charming how Neil Dylandy still believed that Setsuna would save them all, Ribbons thought after Lockon had departed. Had he possessed that belief in his first life as well? Yes, charming was the word for it, in that pitiful human way. Ribbons refused to let himself be irritated by it. It was only a matter of time before he could stake his claim to Setsuna's mind through the GN Map; then irritation and humiliation would turn to triumph, and he'd have proven his right to rule humanity once and for all.

Not that he was irritated or humiliated, of course. He wasn't that human. Besides, he had other matters to attend to. Now that Lockon was gone, it was time to awaken the other person to whom he'd so generously returned life. She was part of the plan, too--just not in the way he had told Lockon she would be. Ribbons had a task for her. He could have used a new, blank Innovator mind for it, of course--but he thought the irony of giving it to Anew Returner was too perfect.

He left Anew's unconscious body the same way he'd left Lockon's: on the couch, dressed in Innovator clothing, with her new memories ready to appear when she woke. It wouldn't be nearly as much, for her. He'd simply given her a new set of skills. Otherwise, she would awaken in her natural state as an Innovator, just as she had before being implanted with the false personality that had served her so well in Celestial Being. For now, he left her there. The GN Map and its intricacies still called to him.

Ribbons retreated to the machine and turned it on. There he stood in the center of that constellation of minds. This was as it should be, he thought. Once he had Veda under his control again, all he had to do was wait for more humans to absorb enough GN particles to appear on the Map. Then they would be under his direct control. Even if they underwent Innovation--surely the processing power of Veda would provide him with ways to overcome that.

There was one last thing about the GN Map that bothered Ribbons.

He reached out to cup one bundle of lights in his hand. The data raced out from it to his mind, informing him immediately that this was where Aeolia Schoenberg's mind rested. It made no sense--two hundred years ago, how could there have been the GN particles necessary to preserve a mind like that? Had it happened while he was in cryostasis, before Alejandro Corner had so foolishly shot him and unlocked Trans-Am? Perhaps when Ribbons reconnected the GN Map to Veda, it would tell him something. But whether it did or not...

Ribbons closed his hand into a fist. He could input the delete command now, he thought. There was nothing special about this cluster of stars that made it resist his control, and it was only a single mind. So long as he didn't touch Setsuna F. Seiei's companions, he could slowly but surely delete whichever minds he wanted to erase.

No, he decided. He drew his hand away. He'd leave it, for now, as a symbol of what he had yet to accomplish. It was enough to simply be standing here in the center of these minds, watching over them, all-seeing--

He almost wasn't all-seeing enough. Only the flash of white clothes at the corner of his vision, where there should have been darkness, made him turn around. Then he was staring with bemusement into Anew Returner's eyes--and more importantly, at her steady hand on the gun she had found as she pointed it at him. She didn't waste time with words, now that he'd seen her. She started to pull the trigger.

Just in time, Ribbons reached out with his mind and took hold of her brain, first freezing her in place, then forcing her to drop the gun. But he shouldn't have had to. He'd set her to wake up in her natural state, not as the false surface self that Lyle Dylandy and the rest of Celestial Being had turned against him. Why would she revert to it now? He sorted through her brain until he found the switch to change her personality back over, and he triggered it. Then he let go of her mind once more.

She looked down at the gun at her feet. "You underestimated her," she said. "My other self."

"There must have been a flaw in the cloning system," Ribbons said. "Anew, what is your mission?"

"To follow Neil Dylandy," Anew said, "make sure he is in my sights, and then shoot him down when you inform me that he's accomplished his mission."

"Precisely," Ribbons said. "When we have no more use for him, you'll snipe the sniper."

She met his gaze without wavering. "I knew another sniper once," she said.

"That was a different you," Ribbons said, "and she's unimportant now." He paused, then added thoughtfully, "You realize that even if she had succeeded in shooting me, it would only have been an inconvenience," he said. "I've taken precautions against such attempts on my life."

"She considered that," Anew said. "But she had to try. She felt very strongly about being forced to turn on Lyle Dylandy. But you're correct. She's unimportant now, and I'm ready for the mission."

* * *

Tieria had been to Ireland before, but that had been in a different body and for an altogether sadder purpose. He didn't know exactly what his purpose here now was just yet, but it involved Lockon, so he could not think to question it. He had come a long way, but that hadn't changed.

But he wondered, a little. He wondered if it meant something that Lockon had offered to meet him in his own land. Should Tieria even address him as Lockon? But he'd said it was all right. What if Lockon didn't recognize him in the female body he'd created so hurriedly? Had choosing it been a mistake after all? These worries and more chased themselves around in Tieria's head, and the vital signs of the new body in question fluctuated in alarming ways. His heart was beating too fast--his pulse felt like a beam weapon charging in his throat. He felt lightheaded, and it was a little difficult to remember how to walk.

As he approached meeting point in the center of Dublin, all these strangenesses in his body and mind swarmed together to spell out a single message: _Lockon is alive. He wants to see me._

"Are you all right?"

Tieria blinked. He was standing at a corner, swaying just a little in the unfamiliar gravity of both the Earth and this new body, and an older woman had approached him. She was concerned for him, he realized. "I'm fine," he said in the voice most appropriate to this body. "I was only thinking about my purpose here. I'm meeting someone at St. Stephen's Green."

The woman smiled knowingly. "I see," she said. Tieria stared at her blankly. How could she think she understood anything of his situation? "Enjoy yourself, dear. It's right down the street."

"Of course," Tieria said, still bemused. Then, as it occurred to him: "Thank you."

"It's not a problem," she said. Tieria wondered if Lockon had ever had an accent like hers. "I was young and in love once myself." Still smiling, she winked at Tieria and started on her way again.

With a start, Tieria hurriedly gathered himself up again and started down the street. He'd have to be more careful. He hadn't realized how easily people could mistake his purpose in coming here, or how odd it would make him feel when they did.

He made his way into the park in the center of the square, looking around for the designated meeting place. It was a bench next to a gazebo--

\--and there Lockon was. He was sitting there with a smile on his face, watching the people pass him by. Long-time residents of the city feeding the swans, tourists peering at statues, children running off the path: they all flowed by Lockon as if he was no one important. He was just one of them, another member of the great mass of humanity.

Tieria stopped and stared. The idea of Lockon as just another human being was so alien to him. Of course, he had vowed to guide and protect all of humanity, and he'd always wanted to protect Lockon. But Lockon had never been just another human. Lockon had always been the guide. Lockon had always been special--at least ever since Tieria was truly part of the team. And now here he was again. Alive.

And then he was even more alive, moving, waving to Tieria. At this distance, Tieria could barely hear it, but Lockon was clearly laughing. Puzzled, Tieria strode over to meet him, allowing curiosity to overcome the initial shock that had rooted him to the ground. "Lockon," he said. He tried to make himself say something more, perhaps a question about where the humor in the situation was, but he couldn't. All he could do was look at Lockon's face, so strangely healthy and unscarred, and see the expression on it, and know that it was Lockon, the first Lockon he had known.

Lockon had stopped laughing by now, but he was still smiling up at Tieria. "You didn't have to come all dressed up, you know," he said.

"I'm not," Tieria said. "This is a simple business suit in an appropriate shade of lavender-grey."

"I meant the new body," Lockon said.

Tieria realized he was flushing slightly. "It's a convenient disguise."

"I don't mind," Lockon said. "You're still Tieria, right?" He stood up.

"Lockon," Tieria said, and this time he found he could follow up with more words, somehow, even when looking into Lockon's eyes and knowing it was _him_. "Why have you called me here? And how..." He trailed off. He couldn't ask how Lockon was here. Irrationally, he felt it might make him vanish. It was still hard to believe he was real.

Lockon held out a hand. Tieria looked down at it. It was still gloved. Lockon was the same as ever. Tieria could not resist a sudden surge of gratitude. Only belatedly did he realize that Lockon meant him to take that hand. Tentatively, he reached out and put his own palm atop Lockon's fingers, rested his fingers in the hollow of Lockon's palm where the leather smoothed it over. Lockon did not disappear; beneath the glove, he felt warm. "Lockon Stratos," Tieria whispered. "It's not a vision this time."

Lockon grinned. "Nope. I'm real."

"I grieved for you," Tieria said. "I visited your family's grave."

The grin slid off Lockon's face, leaving an unsettling and oddly haunted stare in its place (but his hand was still warm). "You did what? Why?"

"I came here before," Tieria said. "Not here to Dublin, but to the suburb where you grew up. I left flowers at your family's grave, because it was the closest thing you had to one, and that is how humans grieve."

"You didn't need to," Lockon said. He folded his hand over Tieria's, enveloping it. "Anyway, I'm here now."

Tieria swallowed against the sudden lump in his throat. "Yes, you are. I'm grateful. I'll accept any message you have for me, Lockon."

"It's an important one," Lockon said. "But we'd better find somewhere more private to discuss it. How about my hotel room?" He tugged a little at Tieria's hand. "I'll lead the way."

"I will follow," Tieria said. And he would. Following Lockon was easy for him. He fell into step behind Lockon and walked with him to the hotel, keeping hold of his hand the whole way.

* * *

Ribbons sat on the couch in his base and waited for the signal from Lockon.

It would be easy to recognize. The quantum brainwaves that Neil Dylandy possessed in his new Innovator body were distinct. They had a dual warmth to them: the friendly sparks of his surface thoughts and, more prominent when he spoke through the link to Ribbons, the smoldering ashes of rage and bitterness. He didn't feel like a steadily burning fire, only its dying byproducts. It was appropriate enough. The man had never been meant to live very long in any body. How humanity survived with people like that in its ranks, Ribbons didn't know.

Lockon's thoughts reached out to him begrudgingly. _I'm alone with Tieria. Do what you need to do._

Ribbons smiled at the resentment there--and the naivete. For such a seasoned killer, Neil Dylandy had a surprising amount of faith in people. People such as Setsuna--no, Ribbons impatiently brushed that thought away and focused instead on what he needed to tell Lockon. _Your work isn't done._

Now suspicion rose through the connection. _What?_

Ribbons caught that worry and fanned its erratic flames. _You didn't think it would be this simple, did you? Tieria's body needs to be in a state of complete surrender before I can jump through the link to Veda. It's how he got through in the first place._

Comprehension crept in from Lockon, desperately reluctant. But still he resisted. _What's that mean?_

Ribbons closed his own eyes and prepared. _A state of complete surrender, as I said. Such as when he is dying. Why did you think I supplied you with the gun?_ And he looked out through Lockon's eyes.

There was Tieria, in the same ridiculous female body as he'd been in when Ribbons had first met him, though most likely a biologically consistent one in this case. He was standing in front of Lockon, looking at him with pitiful hope in his eyes. "Lockon. Are you waiting for something?"

Ribbons waited, watching the struggle play out across Lockon's brainwaves. For whatever absurd human reason, when he'd first lived, he'd made Tieria his to protect. A memory flashed through his mind: poised in the cockpit of his Gundam, watching Exia and Kyrios take off to engage the enemy as their backup systems kicked in after Ribbons had taken Veda away. Lockon lingered in Dynames, turning to check on Virtue, to see that Tieria was still helpless without Veda, useless, and yet moving to protect him anyway, and then--

_I see,_ Ribbons said over their quantum brainwaves, as the remembered pain of old injury briefly clouded Lockon's mind. _It wasn't only your foolish desire for vengeance that cost you your life. You were compromised by your equally foolish need to protect a useless companion._

Wordless anger flashed back at him.

_You shouldn't have trouble deciding,_ Ribbons said. _Tieria, or your brother's future. The choice is easy for you, isn't it?_

As Ribbons watched through his eyes, Lockon turned and reached for something under the bed. Tieria watched, stupidly trusting, until Lockon turned around, lifted his arm, and pointed the gun straight at him.

Tieria made a pathetic strangled cry of a noise.

"I won't apologize," Lockon said. "That won't make it any better."

"Lockon," Tieria said. "Why?"

Lockon's finger curled on the trigger. "For my brother."

Ribbons gave him an impatient nudge. _You don't have to tell him anything. Shoot him already._

"I don't understand," Tieria said. But he didn't move. He drew no gun of his own and he made no effort to disarm Lockon or move in any way.

"You don't have to," Lockon said. But still he hesitated, that memory of taking the blow that would have destroyed Tieria replaying in his mind. That felt right to him. Pointing a gun at Tieria did not. The idea of pulling the trigger went against every protective instinct he had.

Ribbons marveled at those thoughts. How had such a stupid human influenced an Innovator like Tieria so much? But he wasn't inclined to wait much longer. _Now. He can't be worth your brother's future to you._

Lockon's grip on the gun tightened. _No. He isn't. But..._

Irritably, Ribbons thought of how much easier it had been to get the last man to whom he'd handed a gun to use it to kill people. A pleasant memory came to mind: Ali al-Saachez shooting Regene through the head as Ribbons stood by in his then-new body--

\--and he realized too late the thought and the image had gone out to Lockon's quantum brainwaves. That ashen anger erupted into flames of revulsion, making Ribbons wince back with the force of it. When he reestablished himself behind Lockon's eyes, he was just in time to see Lockon release his grip on the gun and send it tumbling to the floor.

_Find another way for me to get you what you want,_ Lockon told him flatly.

_One that doesn't make you into that man?_ Ribbons would have laughed, had he been there. _You're already close enough--simply not as good at staying alive._

This time, he was prepared to duck back from the flames that came at him from Lockon's mind. _No!_

Ribbons sighed. Briefly, he considered simply taking control of Lockon's brain by force, picking up the gun again, and killing Tieria himself, as he'd once attempted to destroy the other Lockon Stratos with Anew Returner. But it seemed too easy and even dignified an end for Tieria, who had taken Veda from him. No, he had a better idea. _Very well,_ he sent to Lockon. _I said a state of complete surrender. Killing him is only the easiest way to put his body into that state. You, I suspect, could find other ways._ He got only blank confusion in response. Not only was Lockon foolish, he was dense as well. _There's a human expression about "the little death"..._

Outside the world of their minds, in the hotel room, Tieria took a hesitant step forward. "Lockon, what's happening?"

_You want me to _seduce_ him?_

Ribbons was fairly sure Lockon could feel his smirk. _You'll need to do a thorough job of it, of course._ He slid into musing as he added, _It's possible that a sneeze would accomplish the same effect, but we can't be certain that body is even designed to--_

Lockon cut him off. _I get the picture._ He hesitated for only a fraction of a second this time, his thoughts still confused and disordered from the new revelation. Ribbons had difficulty making out individual threads in the tangled mess of his feelings now. _I'll do it._

_Good,_ Ribbons said. He pulled himself from Lockon's mind and temporarily cut the link, just to be sure nothing would slip through it unbidden this time. Now he slipped behind Anew's eyes. She was in position. _It's an inconvenience,_ he sent to her, _but you'll need to kill both Neil Dylandy and, when he's in your sights, Tieria Erde. Wait until I send the signal from Veda. It's more suitable that way._

She was impassive as she set up her rifle. _I understand._

* * *

It felt much better to be near Tieria without the gun. Lockon knew that it shouldn't: Tieria was the enemy now. But he was also still Tieria.

Right now, he was staring at Lockon in bewilderment. "What just happened?"

This was definitely going to be awkward. In the past, when Lockon had needed a cover story for a mission, Sumeragi had always provided one. He hadn't needed to string together lies upon lies. Ribbons hadn't provided him with any of that. What story did he use to go from holding Tieria at gunpoint to holding Tieria between the sheets? For that matter, could he really do something like seducing Tieria?

No, he had to do this. Lyle's future depended on it, as crazy as that was. He wouldn't think too hard about how. He'd just do it. That had always been how he'd lived, right? So that was how he'd handle this situation. He'd take it step by step, doing and saying what felt right. He wouldn't invent complete lies, and he would never tell the entire truth. In that way, he'd build up a Lockon that Tieria could believe. It would be just like old times.

"I guess I can't do it after all," he said.

"I'm glad," Tieria said, immediately falling back into the conversation, as if there wasn't still a gun on the floor between them. "But why would you even try?"

Lockon felt his way through an explanation. "Waking up in this world," he said. "Finding out what had happened to my brother, and what Celestial Being had to do with it. It wasn't easy, Tieria. It wasn't what I fought for."

"Didn't you fight to change the world, just like the rest of us?" Tieria asked. "We kept fighting in your memory, Lockon. And we changed ourselves so we could change the world."

"You're wrong, Tieria," Lockon said. He gave an appropriately sheepish smile. "I said I fought to change the world. But I was doing it for my brother. And when I found out what he'd become...I needed someone to blame. Just like I needed to blame Setsuna for something that I knew wasn't his fault, years ago, on that island. But Setsuna wasn't here this time."

Tieria made it too easy. "I was the only one you could take it out on," he said. "I wish I could do more to make it better. Nevertheless, now that you're here, I'll help you adjust." He hesitated. "You still haven't told me how you're alive."

"I don't know the details," Lockon said. "But I don't think I have very long." He realized it was true as soon as he said it. He'd made it eminently clear that he was no good to Ribbons for anything other than manipulating Tieria, and so Ribbons had no reason to keep him around. Truth be told, Lockon was glad. He much preferred dying again to stepping into that man's shoes.

"Lockon!" Tieria wasn't taking it as well, though. "Tell me what the problem is. I'll work to correct it. There may be some answers in Veda--"

Lockon reached out and caught hold of Tieria's hand for the second time that day. "It's all right," he said. "I can stay with you for a while." He'd explained the gun enough. It was time to move on to...the other thing. His brain skidded awkwardly around the idea. Tieria wasn't his teammate anymore, he rationalized, so it was all right to sleep with him. But Tieria had been his teammate for so long that it was still hopelessly strange to contemplate the prospect. For a moment, Lockon tried to focus on the unfamiliar body in that lavender business suit. Could he look at the curve of those hips and the rise of those breasts and tell himself it wasn't Tieria?

"That isn't enough," Tieria said, and Lockon realized he couldn't. It was the same face and the same voice: the same man, even if he wore a woman's body more comfortably than any man Lockon had ever known. Gender must have been one of those human things he'd missed out on learning.

"You can go back to Veda later," Lockon said. "Stay with me for now."

Tieria's expression softened alarmingly. "You want my company."

This really was too easy. It felt incredibly wrong to take advantage of Tieria this way--but not as wrong as it would have felt to shoot him. Besides, there was something about the way his expression changed, something about the vulnerability shown when his lips parted...Lockon realized that he must have been preparing himself for this part of the mission since Ribbons had explained it to him. He was attracted to the earnest, helpful need that shone in Tieria's eyes. He was attracted to _Tieria_. When had that happened? Why had that happened?

It was because he needed it to happen, that was all.

"Yeah," Lockon said. "Stick around, Tieria."

"I can access Veda from here," Tieria began.

_Don't let him,_ came Ribbons's voice in Lockon's mind. _He can't be allowed to communicate with the rest of Celestial Being._

"Hey, hey," Lockon said. He squeezed Tieria's hand. "I want you here, not off in Veda." Inside his head, he said, _A little privacy would be nice. I'll let you know when._

He felt that smirk at the back of his brain. _Of course. I'll leave you two in peace._ The feeling of Ribbons's self-indulgent amusement lingered even as he withdrew, and Lockon found himself turning to memories to wipe it away: memories of Setsuna's true and honest expressions, straightforward and determined in a way Ribbons never could be.

"I don't understand," Tieria said, and Lockon realized that Tieria's openly vulnerable face would serve just as well. "How can I help you with nothing but this body?"

Lockon very nearly told Tieria right then and there how very easy he was making it. It was just too much. At the last moment, he caught the words and turned them into a smile. "I have an idea," he said. Before Tieria could ask him what the idea was, before Lockon could reconsider what he was doing, he pulled Tieria forward, caught the side of his face in his free hand, tipped his head up, and leaned down to kiss him.

Just before he closed his own eyes, Lockon saw Tieria's go wide. For a fraction of a second, Tieria was stiff and unresponsive against him. Then he slid forward against Lockon's body (so warm, so much softer than Lockon remembered) and relaxed into the kiss.

But when Lockon opened his mouth to try to press his tongue into Tieria's, Tieria drew back. He looked up at Lockon with those wide eyes. "You need me for this? I don't see how it can help."

What did he say to that? It was hard to come up with a lie. He still had Tieria's hand in one hand, Tieria's face in the other hand. "I told you once that you were human," he said. "I bet you remember that."

"Yes," Tieria said. "It wasn't true, in the end. I am an Innovade. But it was something I needed to hear."

"Right now it's something I need to feel," Lockon said. He wondered if he was lying after all, then dismissed the thought. Introspection was a bad idea in situations like this. Introspection was a bad idea in general, really. But especially now. "Can you return that favor, Tieria?"

"Of course," Tieria said quickly, straightening up in Lockon's grasp, attentive and earnest. "There's no need to even ask."

"Hey, now," Lockon said, "asking is important for this kind of thing." Or it should have been, at least. Lockon couldn't keep himself from wondering just how consenting Tieria could be considered in this situation. But he pushed the thought away, because if he dwelled on it for too long, he knew it might dim his tentative arousal. He let go of Tieria and stepped away.

With a noise of protest, Tieria reached for him. Lockon laughed. "I'm just going to draw the curtains, Tieria." He made his way over to the window, undid the drawstrings on the curtains, and watched them fall into place. For just a moment, before the curtains blocked his view, he caught sight of something familiar in another window. He wouldn't have spotted it if it weren't so familiar, in fact--it was well hidden. It still took him a moment to place, though. Then he realized why: he was used to being on the other side of that something. Ribbons had a sniper watching him.

Lockon smiled dimly. He doubted the curtain would do anything to stop whoever it was. Ribbons had probably given them a good rifle--he'd worked with that kind of gun, with infrared focusing technology to autocorrect for minor obstacles.

"What's wrong?" Tieria asked.

Lockon turned to face him again and blinked. While he'd been at the window, Tieria had stripped off his jacket and his pants. He was paused in the middle of unbuttoning his blouse now.

"Nothing's wrong," Lockon said. Tieria looked so innocent and determined, Lockon wasn't sure whether to be turned off or drawn to him more. He shrugged out of his own vest and unbuttoned his pants. "Let me get that for you."

"Wouldn't it make more sense to focus on your own--ah!" Tieria cut off as he felt Lockon's gloved fingers dip into his cleavage to start undoing the buttons. "I see," he said, flushing brightly. He reached out to pull down Lockon's pants.

Lockon backed away long enough to step out of the pants, pull his shirt off over his head, and, belatedly, take off his shoes and socks. "This part of being human is a little counterintuitive sometimes," he said. "Don't worry about getting it right the first time."

"But if you need me to..."

"I don't need you to be perfect," Lockon said. "I never have." They were both down to their underwear now; Tieria's was very plain and functional. Lockon stepped forward to relieve him of it.

Tieria stopped him with a hand to his chest. He frowned down at Lockon's underwear. "You're not erect yet." He grasped the underwear with both hands and pulled it down. "I'll assist you with that to the best of my ability." He reached out with just one hand this time and, without another word, gripped the base of Lockon's shaft.

Lockon yelped.

Tieria hurriedly let go. "I did something wrong," he said.

"You were just squeezing a little too hard," Lockon said. "That's all." He was relieved Tieria hadn't gone for his balls first, although really, he would have deserved it. "Relax." He kissed Tieria again, just for a moment this time, and felt that relaxation take hold. "You're doing fine," he said. "I wouldn't have asked this of you if I expected experience, Tieria." A pang of guilt: he wouldn't have asked it at all if it had been up to him. But now that he was here, almost naked, together with Tieria...

He found that he almost didn't mind. In another situation, maybe he wouldn't have minded at all. Of course, it would never have come to this in another situation, so there was no point in thinking about it. Instead, he reached behind Tieria's back and unhooked his bra.

Tieria shivered. Lockon knelt to help him out of the rest of his underwear, shedding his own along the way, kissing Tieria's thighs. Tieria shivered more, and Lockon finally felt himself responding. Above him, Tieria murmured, "Lockon, there's something..."

Lockon stood up. "What is it?"

"Your hair," Tieria said, looking down between Lockon's legs again. "It's blue."

Of course. He'd only dyed the hair on his head. Why would he need to do anything more? "I told you," Lockon said. "I need your help to feel human."

Tieria tipped his head back to look up at him. He looked a little lost, a lot confused, and more than anything, eager to help. "Then I'll give it to you," he said.

It didn't matter what he asked of Tieria, Lockon realized. It never had. Tieria would always have done it for him. It was all right. He was past guilt now, and regret was still something he was no good at.

Lockon kissed Tieria once more. This time, he slid his tongue into Tieria's mouth, and Tieria did not back away. They both stood there for a long moment, naked, kissing each other. Then Lockon realized that they weren't naked after all: he still had his gloves on. That made him feel better.

He took Tieria's bare hands in his gloved ones. "We should get to the bed," he said.

"I understand," Tieria said.

* * *

In the space of a few minutes, a multitude of human expressions had suddenly become very clear to Tieria.

He was walking on air. His head was spinning. He was tongue-tied. His heart skipped a beat. Even though he was breathing fine, he was breathless. The world had narrowed to him and Lockon--

\--and, just barely, that little voice at the back of his head telling him that something was wrong here. It came back to him when he landed on the bed and felt the sheets against his bare body. He had never been naked except to shower and change before. He had always slept in properly designed nightwear. This was so different. What was he getting himself into? There were still so many unanswered questions.

"Lockon," he said, and there was another expression he understood now--the name almost caught in his throat, because he was looking up at Lockon naked, standing over him, smiling that smile that only he had. "How..." There were too many things he could ask. How was Lockon alive? He'd already asked that one and not gotten an answer. How was Lockon in an Innovade body? It was obvious that was the case now; it explained both the ability to connect to Veda and the blue hair. Why did Lockon want him? No, he didn't want to ask that question. Even the cautious voice at the back of his head was afraid of what the answer might be. He just wanted to savor the knowledge: _Lockon wanted him._ He could do something for Lockon. It made him feel so warm, even though he was stripped naked, exposed to the air all around him.

Lockon dropped onto the bed beside him. "It's a long story," he said. "I'll tell you after, as much of it as I can."

Tieria reached, very tentatively, for Lockon's face. He cradled it in both hands and tried hard to breathe normally. Perhaps the extra weight on his chest was impairing his breathing? No, he'd been breathing fine before, despite that inconvenient extra weight, despite the shift in his center of gravity. It was all Lockon. "For now, you need this," he said.

"Yeah," Lockon said.

"Thank you," Tieria said.

Lockon blinked. "What?"

Tieria realized abruptly he'd said something inappropriate. Even now, that happened sometimes, and of course it was more likely to happen in situations such as this with which he was completely unfamiliar. So he clarified. "I am grateful," he said, "for the opportunity to do something for you, after all that you have done for me. Even if it's an insignificant physical action."

Lockon's face was still cradled in Tieria's hands, his gaze locked with Tieria's. So Tieria couldn't miss the flare of pain that suddenly crossed his expression. Alarmed, he let go. "Lockon?"

There was silence for a moment, and then Lockon vanished the pain, as Tieria now knew he'd done so many times in the past. Tieria stifled a pang of his own. It didn't seem fair, that even though he could help Lockon feel human again in this small way, Lockon still couldn't open up to him. Tieria would try harder, in whatever time Lockon had--and he would try just as hard to make sure that was a long time.

Finally, after too long, Lockon smiled. Tieria tried not to see the hollowness in that smile, only the gentleness. "Don't think of it that way," he said. "Think of it as something we can both enjoy."

"All right," Tieria said. Then Lockon leaned forward and kissed him again, and Tieria couldn't say or think anything more. All he could do was feel Lockon's mouth moving against his, his lips brushing over his, and then Lockon was moving away from his mouth and kissing his jaw and then the soft underside of his chin. Tieria gasped, and then he regretted that gasp, because it meant he had no more breath left to do it again when Lockon reached out and cupped Tieria's breasts in his hands. Instead he shook helplessly.

Lockon smiled into Tieria's throat. "You like that," he said, and then he squeezed gently. The leather of his gloves felt so smooth against Tieria's hard nipples. Lockon moved his fingers, stroking gently, making Tieria shiver more and more until finally he rubbed smooth gloved thumbs against the rougher surface of Tieria's nipples.

That was too much. Tieria meant to say something about how he was glad he'd chosen this body after all now, but instead he just moaned. The peculiar excess weight on his chest was worth it, he decided, if it meant he could feel Lockon's hands grasp him that way.

Still with his hands in place, still rubbing (but very gently now), Lockon pushed Tieria back until he was lying down on the bed. Tieria made no move to resist--was that a flicker of sadness in Lockon's eyes? No, that would make no sense. "Lockon," he protested. "You've only made me feel good so far." He spread his legs. Between them, he was already completely wet, as was appropriate. "You should take care of your own pleasure first. That's what this is about."

Lockon smiled. "What if I like taking care of your pleasure? What if _that's_ what makes me feel human?"

"In that case--" Tieria began, but then he cut off, because Lockon had taken his hands away from his breasts. Reflexively, Tieria started to sit up in protest, but Lockon pushed him back down.

"It gets better," he said. Then he took Tieria by the shoulders, leaned forward, and sucked one of Tieria's breasts into his mouth.

"Oh," Tieria said, only it came out all breathy and stretched out and sounded very undignified. He said it again anyway as soon as he felt Lockon's tongue flickering at his nipple. "_Oh._"

Lockon pulled away again, but only to move to the other breast. The feelings threatened to blur together in Tieria's mind. He was tingling so much he was almost _aching_ down below now, and worry tugged at him. It wasn't the rational worry of earlier, that something was wrong, that he didn't understand the whole situation. He wasn't capable of that now. Instead, he worried that something was wrong because Lockon hadn't entered him yet. Was he not helping in the right way?

After too long but not nearly long enough, Lockon let go of Tieria's breast and lifted himself to look down into his face instead. His expression was unreadable to Tieria, who still wasn't very good at that sort of thing, but he thought he could see gentleness there. Of course he could. It was Lockon.

Lockon stroked Tieria's hair back from his face. "Ready?" he asked.

"I've _been_ ready," Tieria said impatiently, "if only you'd--"

Lockon laughed and cut him off with a kiss. Unable to help it, Tieria relaxed into it, sighing into Lockon's mouth, and that was when he felt Lockon slip into him, warm and hard. Tieria was so slick and ready it took only seconds, but they were bizarre and amazing seconds. There was someone else _inside_ him! It was _Lockon_! And he was doing this _for_ Lockon, and it was making Lockon feel good too. That was the best part.

Tieria grabbed Lockon by the waist and held on for dear life.

Lockon thrust smoothly into and out of him. Every time he pulled away, a tangle of questions and worries started to creep back to Tieria: what was going on here? Was he good enough for Lockon? Why wouldn't Lockon answer his questions? Should he be doing something more to increase Lockon's pleasure? Then Lockon stopped withdrawing and caught his breath, and Tieria looked up at his face and tried to read it, tried to concentrate on anything outside his body while Lockon's cock rested just inside his slit, about to slide back in. It was difficult, but every time, he caught a little more nuance, and so he built up an understanding of that expression. It was distant and hungry at the same time, determined and faintly good-humored around the mouth even while his eyes were elsewhere. Where was he? Tieria hoped he was absorbed in his own ecstasy, and he was too warm and full of wonderful sensation and realization to fear much that it was something else.

Then Lockon pushed into him again, and the scraps of doubt vanished.

"Let go, Tieria," Lockon finally said.

Tieria wasn't sure how long it had been, how many cycles of Lockon moving inside him. He looked up blankly. "Why?"

Lockon smiled. His hair fell messily around his face, and Tieria thought he looked even better that way. "I'm ready to finish this," he said. "What about you?"

"I don't want it to end," Tieria confessed. "I want to keep feeling this way, and making you feel this way. But bodies aren't designed for that kind of permanence, not even Innovade ones." He reached a decision. "We'll have to do it again. After you've explained everything to me, and I've found a way to keep you here."

"Of course," Lockon said. "We can do it as many times as you want." But his smile was strange, and Tieria knew he was lying. Still, there was nothing he could do about it, and there never had been. At least this time, he'd been able to do something for Lockon. He loosened his grip on Lockon's waist, then let his hands fall back to his side.

Lockon ducked his head to nuzzle Tieria's neck and shoulders reassuringly, and Tieria leaned into that assurance even if he knew it was false. Below, between his outspread legs, Lockon pulled out in a slow and gentle stroke. As Tieria choked back a sob, Lockon's nuzzling turned first to kissing, then sucking and biting, always gentle even when his teeth tugged at Tieria's skin. Tieria relaxed into the bed at that demanding contact, momentarily content even without Lockon inside him.

Then Lockon shifted his hips up, until the head of his cock rested on the exposed tip of Tieria's clitoris. Such a strange and sensitive part of the body that was; Tieria had regarded it with skepticism when he first studied female anatomy. Now he had no room for analytical thoughts of that kind. He could only feel Lockon there, wet and sticky now as much with his own spilling fluids as with Tieria's. His eyes widened, and Lockon lifted himself from nibbling at Tieria's collarbone just in time to see that.

"Almost there, huh," he said. "Just like that." He pressed forward, rubbing his wet cock on Tieria's clit.

Tieria gripped the bedsheets. He was starting to tremble, and the shaking of his hips only jostled him more against Lockon. He tried to breathe. "Because it's you," he said, with some of that breath.

"I know," Lockon said. He pressed a hand to Tieria's head. "I'm sorry, Tieria."

Tieria had no room to process those inexplicable words, because climax was overtaking him, and then Lockon pulled away but only to slide back into him at last, shuddering with his own orgasm, his control was so good that he'd waited for Tieria, he hadn't needed to do that, he could have--

\--it all happened very fast--

\--and it started when, as he was halfway inside Tieria, Lockon's eyes flashed with rainbow iridescence.

Something seized hold of him that wasn't his feelings for Lockon. Then there was laughter inside his head, ugly and derisive and _familiar_. Then nothing, nothing at all except the sudden pain of a door slamming shut, worse this time than before because of the connection he had experienced, had been relying on. He didn't understand. He only knew one thing.

"Ribbons Almark," Tieria said. Satiation and loss warred in his body and mind.

Lockon pulled away, and then Tieria felt only loss and fading warmth.

* * *

Returning to Veda was like recapturing one's homeland. Ribbons skipped through the two minds he used as a bridge as fast as possible. One was a human mind in an Innovade body, the other an Innovade mind that had embraced human weakness--he didn't care to expose himself too much to either one, especially while they were engaged in such acts. Sexual intercourse had been distasteful enough when he'd engaged in it to manipulate Alejandro Corner. Now, Ribbons lingered in Tieria's mind only long enough to enjoy the feeling of how far he'd degraded himself without even the thought of manipulation to make up for it. He'd joined his body to another person willingly and openly, and he'd _enjoyed_ it. This only proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that Ribbons was the one who deserved to be in control of Veda.

He shut Tieria out once again, as he had the first time. It was a greater door to close this time, but he was in control now. He could do it. Now he had both the GN Map and Veda. He wondered how long he should leave Lockon and Tieria alive for. A little longer, so Tieria could realize how he'd been betrayed. That decided, Ribbons turned his attention back to his physical body, while keeping the channel to Veda open. He wouldn't risk closing it again.

His eyes shimmered with the connection as he made his way back to the GN Map. There he stood in the center of it--and he reconnected a single solitary strand of it to Veda. Just enough so that he could access both at once. Now when the stars of the different minds that had been exposed to GN particles appeared all around him, he had the processing power to analyze every one of them. Even Setsuna's star paled before him. Ribbons reached out and grasped it in one hand. It still remained a closed puzzle to him--but he could see the cracks that led into it. It was the same as with Tieria: his human weaknesses would be his undoing. Ribbons could see where concern and affection for his companions offered hooks into Setsuna's mind. He would use that. It would take a different form than it had with Tieria, but it would bring Setsuna down just as surely.

Ribbons let go of Setsuna's mind and smiled. He'd given Lockon and Tieria enough time to share the pain of their mistakes. He reached out to Anew. _Shoot them now._

Her voice returned to him without inflection. _Understood._

He felt her fall to her purpose; in seconds, two unfortunate loose ends would be tied up for good. Ribbons knew it was time to allow himself his promised indulgence. He reached out, and he scooped up a familiar set of lights.

"Aeolia Schoenberg," he said. "You've trapped me under your plan for too long. You are not the god of this new humanity, and you never will be. That position belongs to me now. I will watch over them from Veda and the GN Map. In the end, they will thank me, even if they do not know it."

Ribbons reached into Veda and drew down its processing power. The lights of Aeolia Schoenberg's mind were pale and feeble compared to that. It took barely a hint of an effort to snuff them out for good. The GN Map was his; Veda was his; humanity was his. Ribbons exulted in it.

Then the GN Map itself lit up in front of him. Ribbons snapped his attention back to it. That wasn't supposed to happen. It was a passive projector of data, that was all.

But it wasn't. A screen flickered into existence above it, and a familiar face and voice spoke from that screen.

"If you have done this seeking to use the minds and souls of humanity to further a selfish agenda, then I see that my vision of the future has not yet been realized."

It was then that Ribbons thought again of Alejandro shooting that body in cryostasis. He remembered Trans-Am. But it was too late.

* * *

Midway to Jupiter, the crew of the Ptolemaios sat up in surprise and stared at the screens surrounding them.

"But to those who have used the GN Drives in the past, I entrust a new power. Take back the GN Map."

Of them all, only Setsuna did not look shocked.

* * *

In a building with an excellent view of the hotel in which Lockon and Tieria now were, Anew Returner finished focusing through the scope of her rifle. She moved her hand to the trigger. Then she stopped.

"If your minds have been tampered with, return to your new bodies with the wisdom you have found beyond them."

* * *

Throughout the Earth, the most sensitive human beings, those closest to Innovation, found themselves looking at the sky, not knowing what they were searching for, but staring up at the sky and the stars all the same.

Somewhere in the countryside of Kazakhstan, Marie Parfacy looked up at the luminous glow of the moon and all the stars around it. She imagined them connecting. Beside her, Allelujah Haptism put a hand on her shoulder, momentarily confused, then gave in and gazed up with her.

* * *

In the hotel in Dublin, Tieria finally regained enough control of himself to sit up in bed. Lockon wouldn't look at him. But then both their attentions were captured by a new message echoing in their minds.

"Remember that the human mind cannot be contained, and let all of you who seek a better future continue to strive for understanding."

Next to the bed, Lockon dropped to his knees, and even now, Tieria went to him.

* * *

Lockon didn't know where the familiar old voice had come from. He didn't think to question it, though. He was too busy losing himself in the meaning of the words. Why was he of all people hearing a message about the future? He was a fragment of the past, transplanted into the present to secure someone else's future. Why was Aeolia talking about understanding? What did that have to do with a better future? The only way Lockon had ever known to make a better future was to fight those who were evil and protect those who were innocent.

"But you realized that was wrong, didn't you? In the end."

Lockon looked up, and he wasn't in the hotel room anymore. He was in a vast plane of light. He'd never seen it before, but it felt familiar somehow. The man who had just spoken was also familiar. It was himself--not in his new Innovator body, unscarred and naked save for his gloves, but as he'd been before he died, in his battered flight suit and an eyepatch. He stared at himself and tried not to wonder why his first urge was to turn and run away.

"It's because you've never been very good at facing yourself," his double said. "When you looked in the mirror, you saw someone else. Your reason for fighting. But not you." He paused. "Well, I'm still you, so this isn't easy for me, either. Maybe I'm not saying it right."

"You aren't me," Lockon said. He gestured at his new body. "This is all that's left of me. A copy of some data, soon to be destroyed. That doesn't matter either, since I've done what I can to fix the future for my brother. If he's happy, then I don't need to stay in this world, and I don't want to stay in a world where he isn't happy."

His own image smiled. "We're pretty stupid, aren't we?"

Lockon fell silent. That wasn't something he could comfortably deny. Actually, he couldn't do anything comfortably right now. He'd only ever been comfortable by locking himself far away inside his heart, not facing himself, one on one.

The other version of him went on. "But when Ribbons downloaded you into that new body, he took the stupidest part of us: the part that had lived. Heh, 'lived' sure is the wrong word for it, isn't it? We didn't live. We fought, and we hated, and we protected, and we hurt. Isn't that right?"

"If you're me," Lockon said, "you know it never mattered if I lived so long as Lyle did."

"You're right," his other self said. "That's why, when we died, I lingered. No, I'm lying, even now. It wasn't just for Lyle. I stayed because I needed to see Setsuna find his answer, too."

"Then you're my ghost," Lockon said. That made things a little easier. It made more sense, somehow, to think of himself as having a ghost than as having an inner self.

"Well, it wasn't like that exactly," said the one who might have been his ghost. "I didn't choose to stay. I just resisted the pull to be elsewhere, without knowing what I was doing. Without knowing there was a me left to be doing it. But I watched over Celestial Being. Even when there wasn't a me to be doing any watching, just stardust and memories. But I was there when they needed me to be."

Lockon shook his head. "I was dead. I'll be dead again soon." But he was still there, talking to himself. Back in the real world, the shot he expected had not been fired.

"You don't remember," his ghost said. "You don't remember the few things it matters to remember. Telling Setsuna to change. Do you remember that?"

"Setsuna wouldn't need me to change," Lockon said.

"Maybe not," said the other one. "But he needed the nudge. So I appeared to give him it. And he chose to change, of his own free will. Just like we didn't."

"We didn't need to," Lockon said, "so long as Lyle..."

"You don't remember that, either."

"Remember what?"

"In the end, Lyle did what we couldn't do. He stopped running and he faced himself. But he needed to talk to me to do that. He needed me to accept him and who he was now. So I did. That's why I'm still here, instead of...wherever comes next. Just in case someone needs me. We got a little too used to that during life, didn't we? Being needed."

That much was true. Lockon couldn't deny it. But he could deny the rest of what this ghost had said with all his heart. "I can't accept what's happened to Lyle," he said. He closed his eyes, and the image of the Earth before his outstretched hand sprang to mind. His last sight, and with it the futile accompanying knowledge: the way he had lived was all wrong, but he could never have lived any other way, not as long as the world was what it was. If Lyle was alone and unhappy, then the world still was what it was.

"That wasn't our choice to make," came his other self's voice. Then a hand in a flight suit's glove closed around his. "So long as we understood."

Lockon opened his eyes and, with no alternative, looked right at himself. For a moment, he felt sparks at his fingertips. Then the memories came.

Setsuna, watching the past unfold again around him. _You will change, Setsuna. Change where I could not change._ And he felt Setsuna's will to change.

Lyle, caught in the instant of Trans-Am. _Lyle...no, Lockon Stratos. Snipe for the world._ And he felt Lyle's will to change himself and the world, felt his existence as his own person instead of a repository for all his brother's longing or all his brother's shadows.

"You're right," said the Neil Dylandy who wore an Innovade's body. "I was an idiot. He's the only one who can make a better world for himself."

"That's right," said the Neil Dylandy who wore an eyepatch. "And there's one other thing."

"What's that?"

"You were there for Tieria, too. To tell him that he didn't need you or the other Innovators or anything but his own will."

Lockon remembered, as he held his other self's hand. He had never intended to keep being there for Tieria, but Tieria's need had drawn him back. "Yeah," he said. "I remember now."

"That's too bad," said the other him. "Because you just undid all that."

Before he realized what was happening, Lockon was speaking those words himself. There was no other him anymore--just him, just Neil Dylandy naked on his knees on the floor of a hotel room, with someone who still saw Lockon Stratos in him clutching at his shoulder, staring urgently into his eyes.

"Undid all of what?" Tieria asked. "Lockon, what just happened?"

Lockon stared at Tieria. "You're worried about me," he said.

"You fell down and stopped responding to anything," Tieria said. "Naturally I'm worried about you."

Lockon reached out and cupped the side of Tieria's face with one gloved hand. Tieria stilled instantly. "I just seduced you and betrayed you to your worst enemy, Tieria," he said. "It's all right not to forgive me."

Tieria just looked at him with so much more softness in those eyes than Lockon ever remembered seeing there before. "Lockon," he said.

Lockon gave up, for now. He still didn't understand Tieria as much as he thought he had. He said, "Tieria, is there any way you can get back into Veda and stop Ribbons? Helping him was the wrong thing to do. I know that now. He can't keep my brother safe or give him a better future, and even if he could, it wouldn't be my place to make that decision. But I don't know how to fix it, so it's going to be up to you."

Tieria blinked at him. "No," he said. "It will be up to you as well." The softness in his eyes was gone. Stern determination had replaced it. "I have an idea."

* * *

Across from the window of Lockon's hotel room, a rifle still stood, aimed at him and Tieria. But behind it, Anew Returner knelt unmoving. She was in the plane of light now as well. But there was no argument and no resistance here.

Instead, she just looked up at herself standing above her. "I missed you," she said. "I missed your memories. I missed him."

Anew stepped into herself and back into the world. She could waste no time. She, too, had an idea, and she had brought this one back from the stars beyond life.

* * *

The door to Veda was closed to Tieria. Ribbons had thrown it shut with spiteful glee. But he had not thought to close it to Lockon. After all, Lockon would be dead soon enough anyway, and why would he try to reach into Veda in the first place, even if he wasn't?

He couldn't have, anyway, not without a terminal. Not if Tieria hadn't been there to guide him.

Tieria held his hands and led him through the process. "It should be on your left now," he finally said.

The electronic passageways of Veda were bizarre to Lockon, but Tieria's presence at the edge of his awareness offered an anchor in more ways than one. Here was someone familiar. Here was someone he cared about. Here was someone he had to protect. Here was someone he had to make up for hurting. Lockon could deal with the strangeness of data rushing all around him in front of his iridescent eyes so long as he remembered Tieria's hands on his. It was almost enough to make him wish he'd taken off his gloves.

"Looks like I've found it," he said. "It's heavily encrypted."

"Listen closely, and input the following passwords," Tieria said. Then, his voice steady, he listed off an array of numbers and positions.

Lockon followed, faithfully pressing the given data into this part of Veda with a fumbling virtual touch. "It's a good thing you can remember all that, Tieria."

"It's an excerpt of your face from a picture of the first Ptolemaios crew, translated through several computer languages and into the quantum state codes used by Veda," Tieria said. "All my passwords are, in some form."

In the far-away shell of his body, Lockon felt a prickling of discomfort. "Hey, hey, isn't that a security risk?"

"I've decided that it's worth the risk," Tieria said. "I feel that all data I protect in this way is a part of me rather than merely a part of Veda. Although...this file was never one I wished to take upon myself. I only did so that I could watch over it."

"Are you sure you want me to open it?" Lockon asked.

"Yes," Tieria said. "There is a saying. 'Fight fire with fire.'"

"Yeah. It's what we did when Celestial Being first began its interventions," Lockon said. "But it wasn't right, after all. Not the way we thought it was."

"We simply didn't know its proper application," Tieria said. "Lockon, release the data now and disconnect from Veda."

Lockon opened the file and vanished from the digital landscape, returning gratefully to the real world. But maybe he shouldn't have been so grateful--when he returned, Tieria was still holding his hands.

* * *

Half in his body at the center of the GN Map and half deep inside Veda, Ribbons resisted the urge to lash out and leave a swath of destruction around him. He remembered too clearly now: that was what Alejandro Corner had done when his rash actions had triggered the activation of Trans-Am. It was important that Ribbons keep his composure now, as the human he'd once followed had been unable to. Surely he could still stop whatever had been released this time, if only he put his mind to it. He had control of Veda, and that was what mattered.

Ribbons let go of much of his hold on his physical body and flowed as much into Veda as he could while still remaining on his feet by the GN Map. He reached out into Veda, searching for a solution--

\--only to feel something much like a hand closing around his, cutting off his reach. His brain struggled to interpret the new encounter, then gave up and cast it in a human light.

The shimmering halls of Veda rose as shifting pixels around him. Standing in the center of them, his hand closed into a fist around Ribbons's grasping fingers, was someone else who looked just like Ribbons. No, that was absurd. Physical appearances meant nothing here; it had to be a trick.

"Let go," said Ribbons. "I won't tolerate any more useless resistance from this system."

"Pathetic," said the image of him.

"What?"

"You fumble your own plan, and yet you still insist you have the right to Veda," said the simulacrum. "It seems Tieria was good for one thing after all."

"What do you mean?" Ribbons said.

"He saved my data in a secure pocket of Veda before ensuring that my last body was destroyed after the battle with Setsuna F. Seiei," said the false double. "I see now what a good thing that was. Clearly my mind degraded when it was transferred to its next body."

"I see," Ribbons said. "You're nothing but a copy, under Tieria's control." He pulled his hand away.

"Tieria Erde has no control over Veda now," said the other. "I am Ribbons Almark, and Veda is mine now."

"Unthinkable," Ribbons said. "I have the GN Map. I took back Veda. _I_ am Ribbons Almark, and this victory is mine."

"Is that so?" And then the false copy rippled and flowed, heading for the strand of Veda that led back to Ribbons's body.

Ribbons intercepted him just in time. "You have no right to that body, or to the GN Map," he snapped. "What are you doing?"

"Fixing your mistakes, of course," said the fake. "Restoring the plan as it should be. Let go. You're a useless copy, little better than a human. There's no place for you in the coming world."

"I can't let you do that," Ribbons said. He focused his attention on the mockery in front of him, letting go of his hold on the rest of Veda. "This world is mine alone." He let go of his body entirely as well; it was only a hindrance now. What mattered was taking back Veda from this lie that masqueraded as him. He reached for his mirror image's throat, determined to destroy this data as he had destroyed Aeolia's data.

The false Ribbons settled his hands around Ribbons's throat at the same time. They stared at each other with contempt. Then they froze that way.

A new voice flickered through Veda. It belonged to someone who had never been granted this kind of power in her first lifetime. She'd only been a pawn until the end then. Now Anew Returner took back Veda to bring a message to humanity.

But first, she looked at the tableau of Ribbons fighting Ribbons. "There's no place for either of you in the coming world," she said. "You made it so yourself. This world belongs to those who've accepted their own humanity, not you."

With that, she sealed them both off under layers of passwords generated from the memory of Lyle Dylandy's face.

* * *

It felt good to be herself again, Anew thought. It felt good to remember Lyle's face.

But even with Veda safely away from Ribbons and in her hands, she could not rest to contemplate that thought. She had more things to do with the new freedom of mind that Aeolia's last gift had given her. Traveling into Veda and retaking it from Ribbons was just the first step.

The GN Map was the next one. She found the single connection Ribbons had made from it to Veda, littered with his lost intentions of jealously guarding it. She swept those away and painstakingly reconnected each strand of it at all the places Ribbons had severed it, now plain to her. As a last thought, she threw open the door to Tieria's mind that Ribbons had slammed shut. For a moment, she sensed his startled awareness of her.

_Anew Returner! How are you here?_

She offered a wordless apology; she couldn't explain what her soul's travels had done to her and shown to her. Not yet, not to him alone. Instead, she found the feature of the GN Map that had just been activated, and she turned it on. It was, in a way, a projector. Her image splashed out across the stars.

It was also a summoner. Around her, gazing up at her, came all those living souls who had been exposed to enough GN particles, now naked and shimmering. In front of her at the center of the group were those who had absorbed the most: the four Gundam Meisters of Celestial Being, Setsuna F. Seiei, Lockon Stratos, Tieria Erde, and Allelujah Haptism. At Setsuna's side and at Allelujah's side were those who had piloted lesser mobile suits--Saji Crossroad and Marie Parfacy, less solid but still there. At Tieria's side, also faint but hanging on, was the other Lockon Stratos, Neil Dylandy. Surrounding them, insubstantial but aware of their new place in space, were the other crew members of the second Ptolemaios. Sumeragi Lee Noriega; Feldt Grace; Ian, Linda, and Mileina Vashti; Lasse Aeon. Least solid of all and flickering were those who had only been briefly exposed: Louise Halevy, clinging to Saji's arm; Andrei Smirnov, standing wide-eyed and uncomfortable at Marie's side; Billy Katagiri, keeping an awkward distance from Sumeragi and standing closer to the fainter image at his side of Graham Aker, who seemed more interested in Setsuna than in the fact that he was naked in space.

Beyond them, in the expanse of space around Earth were shadows: the souls of those others who were sensitive to such things, who were closest to Innovation. They didn't know what was happening, but in their dreams they saw Anew Returner stretched across the stars, and the waking ones sensed her presence beyond the sky. Things would change again, from now on. But that was how it had to be, for the dialogues that were to come to begin.

"You're all here," Anew said. She smiled. "I have a message for you."

Lyle broke rank with the other Meisters first. "Anew!"

"Lyle," she said. For a moment, she flickered. She didn't just want to be a messenger. She wanted to be Anew Returner, with Lyle Dylandy.

"How are you here?" He looked around. "Neil, you too?"

Neil smiled sheepishly. "Sorry, little brother. I think this is going to be complicated."

"It isn't that complicated at all," Anew said. At least, it didn't seem complicated to her. She had returned from where the Ptolemy was going, and now she simply had to explain that to the others. "Do you know the true purpose of the GN particles?"

Lasse spoke up. "They're to help humanity undergo Innovation," he said.

"That's just one step forward," Anew said. "Their ultimate purpose is to allow humanity to communicate with what waits for them in the gravity well of Jupiter: the combined souls of all who have gone before and all who are to come."

"How is that possible?" Allelujah asked.

"GN particles share the frequency of human thought," Anew said. It was hard to articulate knowledge that was second nature to her, now that she had been in that glittering consciousness around Jupiter, so she spoke slowly. "They are artificial cousins of the substance of the human soul. That substance is released when someone dies, and the solar wind sweeps it out to Jupiter, where gravity catches it and it falls into the mass of souls that have collected there, free from the constraints of the human body. Eventually, they are swept back to Earth, where they mingle with newly created particles to generate a new human being."

Now the shifting images at the edge of the group stirred.

"Mama," said Louise. "Papa..."

Andrei's voice was steadier, but still struck with awe. "Mother. Father."

Billy looked at Graham, who only bowed his head and said nothing. He seemed to anticipate what Anew had to tell next.

"Everyone who becomes part of this consciousness changes, and cannot come back," Anew said apologetically. "Unless they have absorbed enough GN particles to set them apart. But Innovation will eventually allow humans to communicate with this greater mind while still alive."

Sumeragi looked up at her with the stunned expression of the lapsed believer confronting faith once more. "We're going to meet God at Jupiter?"

This time, Anew did not need to say a thing. It was Setsuna who responded.

"There is no God in this world," he said. "We are traveling to meet humanity itself. We will meet our own past and future, and then we will truly understand each other."

"Yes," Anew said. "GN particles and the GN Map were created to allow this to happen. Tieria, when you retake Veda again, you'll have control of the GN Map this time. As you were always meant to, in order to help the true Innovators connect. It's time," she said.

"Time for what?" Tieria said.

"Time for humanity to expand to its next stage," Anew said, "and join with itself at last." She had imparted her message. She felt a tug at her mind from two directions--one, the mass of souls at Jupiter, and another, weaker, her new body in Dublin. For a moment longer, she resisted both pulls. She looked away from the others, away from the shadows of humanity that caught brief glimpses of her message, and focused on Lyle Dylandy. "Please wait for me, Lyle," she said. "I'll catch up with you as soon as I can."

Knowing it was selfish, but wishing to do it anyway, Anew turned away from the pull of what lay beyond death and followed the path through the GN Map and Veda back to her body. She would take advantage of her return from death for a while longer. She wanted to be with Lyle as herself, not as a part of a greater whole.

* * *

Lockon hesitated to go back to his body when Anew let go of them all. Her words had made it clear that he didn't belong there anymore. For a moment, he could see two paths before him: one leading out to Jupiter, and one leading back to Earth, back to Ireland, back to the hotel in the heart of Dublin where he knelt on the floor with Tieria at his side. It would be easy to follow the first path; he'd waited too long already.

But his own words to himself from earlier made him hesitate. He'd just renewed all of Tieria's dependence on him. It was bad enough that he'd knowingly left Tieria without so much as a proper farewell once, years ago. But that had been necessary, even if it had come to nothing in the end. Now he had the chance to say goodbye, and taking it was the least he could do. He drifted back down into his body.

Tieria was already there, holding onto him, looking into his eyes and waiting for his return. Lockon's deliberation out in the particle-strewn space had taken only an instant, but it was still enough to cause Tieria concern. "You're all right," he said now, a faint smile flickering across his face.

Lockon smiled back at him, then carefully stood up, gently pulling Tieria's hands away from his shoulders. "You worried, didn't you? You've got to stop that."

"It's a normal human reaction," Tieria said. He stood up to face Lockon. "Worrying about someone you care about. And you have always encouraged me to be more human."

"You learned that one just fine," Lockon said. "But now you need to learn how to let go."

"Lockon..."

"You heard what Anew told us all," Lockon said. "That's what I've been holding myself back from, all this time. I've been watching over Celestial Being instead of going where I belong."

"It _was_ you," Tieria said suddenly. "In the visions. Even after death, you were there for me when I needed you most." He reached out and placed a hand over Lockon's heart. "There isn't any way I can thank you properly."

"There's one way," Lockon said. "Let me go, Tieria. Promise me you'll be all right once I leave this body for Jupiter."

Tieria looked at him steadily, hand still on his heart. "No," he said. "That's one thing I won't do."

"What?"

"Years ago, on that island with Setsuna and me, you said you would atone for your sins once you were finished fighting," Tieria said. "But when you were done fighting, you died."

Lockon opened his mouth to protest, but he couldn't actually think of anything to say. He wound up staring blankly at Tieria, helpless in the face of that calm, determined gaze. He knew now, as he'd never admitted to himself before, that he'd never intended to live long enough to atone for everything he'd done. But Tieria wasn't supposed to see him that way.

"Now you are alive again," Tieria said, "and you've done more things that should be atoned for."

"I know," Lockon said. "I'm sorry, Tieria." The apology felt strange in his mouth, even though it was the second time he'd said it here. When had he ever apologized seriously before meeting Tieria here? Was he even being serious now? "But that just shows I don't belong in this world anymore."

"No," Tieria said. "Whether you stay alive or not is your own choice. It isn't dictated by perceptions of where you belong." His breath caught, then. Lockon was struck all of a sudden by how beautiful he was, not even because of his new body, but because of his new smiles and his new openness. "Besides..."

"What is it, Tieria?" Lockon asked. Jupiter seemed more distant now than it had a few minutes ago, for some reason.

"If such things matter to you," Tieria said, "then I have a different idea of where you belong."

"Tieria--" But Lockon didn't get to finish his rebuke. Tieria leaned up and kissed him before he could.

"You belong at my side," Tieria said. He settled his free hand behind Lockon and pulled him close. "As you are my lover now."

Lockon tried to concentrate on something other than the feel of Tieria's breasts against him or the gentle look in Tieria's eyes. It wasn't easy. "You know I only did that because Ribbons was using me," he said.

"Yes," Tieria said. "But you said we would do it again. Keeping your word in this instance would not atone for everything you have done, but it would be a good start."

"I shouldn't," Lockon said. "I'm not meant to live on, Tieria."

"There is no 'meant to,'" Tieria said. "There is only you and what you choose. That is what Setsuna would say. Lockon, please stay with us in this world."

Lockon leaned down a little to nestle his chin against the side of Tieria's face. "Maybe I'm not finished after all," he said. It seemed like the last thing he should be saying, but he said it anyway, testing out how it sounded.

Tieria leaned into him. "No," he said. "You've only just begun."


End file.
